Family Kicked Off JetBlue Flight After Toddler Has A Tantrum

A JetBlue pilot refused to fly because a family’s 2-year-old threw a temper tantrum! The airline kicked the family of four off the flight!

When Dr. Colette Vieau‘s 2-year-old daughter Natalie threw a fuss on a Boston-bound JetBlue flight from the Turks and Caicos, her mom did everything she could to calm the little one. Natalie’s parents managed to get her seat belt fastened and held in place, but the pilot and a flight attended decided they were unable to take off until the family left, according to The Daily Mail.
The parents were forced to take Natalie and their 3-year-old Cecilia off the flight.

“We weren’t belligerent, drunk, angry, screaming,” Colette says. “We were just having a hard time struggling with our children.”

After being kicked off, the family was forced to stay another night on the island because there were no more flights that day. They had to book a hotel for the night and more flights to get home, which cost them an more than $2,000.

“Flight 850 had customers that did not comply with crew member instructions for a prolonged time period,” JetBlue said in a statement. “The Captain elected to remove the customers involved for the safety of all customers and crew members on board.”

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Amaryllis

Posted at 2:47 PM on July 21, 2014

It you think the airline wasn’t right to kick this family off the plane you should view the video of the interview the parents gave afterwards on the Today show. The kids were crawling all over the parents and causing a racket while they were trying to talk to Matt Lauer. It was very irritating.

As I heard the mother described, the girl wasn’t “getting settled.” After finally holding down the two girls with all their strength — weren’t those the mother’s actual words — they got them seated and belted. So not only did it take considerable time to get the kids there, but considerable strength to keep them there. Can they maintain that the entire flight and keep those kids from running over to one of those red door latches and swinging from it? And there aren’t too many emergency flight choices on a flight entirely over water. An airplane is not a restaurant or other public place. I do think we should all be more sympathetic to children in restaurants. However, an airplane, especially a long flight, is like a shared hotel room where one person could risk everyone’s life by one wrong move. That’s unusual. And if the parents are wrestling desperately for so long to control their children, I wouldn’t feel safe.

Some comments say control your bratty kids. My mom took care of it. But this was before all these rules were out there that even yelling at your child is child abuse. This is a problem society has created. You PEOPLE need to realize that children are learning to function in society. How do you expect them to learn if you don’t keep them around. They are not dogs. They are human. Let’s put you in a cage and see how well you function. No the pilot should have sucked it up not be so high on control that he kicked them off. Jet blue should pay for their expenses.

If you have to hold down your two year old then you really shouldn’t be on an airplane. I know all the mommies and daddies are going to attack me now but whatever. If she was so afraid like you are all claiming then how is it doing her any good to be FORCEFULLY held down instead of removed from the airplane? If a kid is that scared to fly, find another way to travel.

Control your bratty children, I support the captain, about time society took a stand against the rest of us having to deal with their bad parenting, I saw multiple interviews with this family and in every one the kid was uncontrollable, so clearly there is a discipline issue here. Possibly the kid has some kind of ADD disorder and if that was the case Im sure they would have bought that up but they didnt, so clearly this is a case of BAD PARENTING.

I think what the airline did was very wrong. Everyone needs to think about it as if they were in that position and I’m sure anyone would be annoyed and angry if it was them being kicked off. I am a teacher and I know all children are going to throw a tantrum once in a while but kicking off that poor family just as the little girl got settled is disgusting. No one is perfect and it looks like we all might need to learn a little patience.

I AM 70 YEARS OLD MY PARENTS DID NOT ALLOW ME TO ACT LIKE A BRAT THEY WHIPED MY LITTLE A–. I WISH I COULD THANK THEM AGAIN FOR BEING GOOD PARENTS NOT THE WAY MANY PARENTS ARE TODAY THINK LITTLE JOHNNY IS PERFECT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE
“FRANKLEY I DON’T GIVE A DAM”. WE HAVE ENOUGH OUT OF CONTROL NANCYS AND CLINTONS

Sure old Man. Let’s see you smack a kid in the A$$ and see how fast you are thrown in jail. You can’t do things the way they did in the stone ages. In your days, children were seen and not heard. That’s why we have all the crazy ax murderes out there. Good job!

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CURTIS BECK

Posted at 2:41 PM on March 29, 2012

DO YOU MEAN LIKE NANCY AND CLINTON

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CURTIS BECK

Posted at 3:36 PM on April 3, 2012

YOUR AGE GROUP IS DOING GREAT. YOU HAVE THE KID WHO KILLED 2 BRIT TOURIST FOR NO REASON I HOPE YOU DO NOT HAVE THE SAME HAPPEN TO YOU

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addie

Posted at 11:38 PM on March 12, 2012

Question: would the airline still have kicked the family off is the toddler was screaming while buckled??

This is a horrible story. Yes I agree alot of kids are brats these days. What about the parents who are making a huge effort to have well mannered children?? So now they are punished too I guess. Oh and wacth what you say, Kharma is a B.

Good parenting always starts at home. Clearly this toddler is not well discipline. Flying nowadays is stress enough with all the security and etc, so why should i add my stress with your child’s tantrum. If you cannot control your child, do all of us a favor. STAY HOME! i want a peace and quiet flight!!!!!!

If the child was refusing to stay in their seat, then Jetblue was in the right to make them get off the plane.

Though, if it was just because the child was scared and would not stop crying then that is INSANE. The child was most likely scared and cranky and once the plane got in the air would have calmed down. You can’t make a child who doesn’t understand stop when they are having a meltdown.

Whomever thinks Jetblue was in the right to kick them off the plane because the toddler was crying obviously has never had to deal with a toddler. It has nothing to do with their child rearing skills. That is just an ignorant thing to say, but then again we know what people say about opinions …

I’ve had children and I am applauding. Problem today is the little brats, curtain climbers, ankle biters are smarter than the parents. What ever happened to a good swat on the rear? Discipline the little brats!!! They’ll thank you some day.

BRAVO to JetBlue! I was on a flight from Turks in Jan on US Air and there were more heathen ankle biting BRATS running around the plane than I’ve ever seen. Parents don’t know or care to control their children in public (especially airplanes) and its refreshing for them to finally get BOOTED. I’m sure the $2K they spent rebooking was an expensive lesson learned, and I bet they keep better control of their goddamn BRATS next time they fly.

You obviously have no experience with children if you think that you can “control” a two year old who is having a meltdown. Even the most well behaved children have meltdowns and it has absolutely no reflection on the parents disciplining abilities.

A meltdown is one thing, but having to be forcibly held down to stay in a seat is another thing. If the child is so out of control that they aren’t following basic safety rules, they have to leave. If anyone chooses not to follow rules, they can be kicked off. it’s really that simple.

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Shirl

Posted at 1:36 PM on March 28, 2012

I hope that you are never blessed with children. I would hate to see a child with a stupid father.

thank god i fly west jet… I had my toddler screaming and kicking me in the throat during take off (she was freaked out) and they helped me hold her down and distract her until she could sit on her own.

I realize people don’t like to listen to screaming kids, and I’m sorry, but that’s part of anything public. I would be suing for the costs of the hotel.

I’m flying in june with my autistic 4 year old. I have no idea what kind of melt downs he may or may not have. but i hope if he does have one, someone will help instead of causing me more grief over it.

I wish you luck. I have a lot of sympathy for parents flying with kids. But fly at YOUR own risk. A child out of control in a rsetaurant endangers no one. An out of control child on an airplane endangers everyone, so the risk should be borne by the parent, the risk of being kicked off the plane.

I have three children (3, 5, & 7) and I am actually with JetBlue on this one. And I’ve had to fly with all three of them (last year) from Toronto to Shanghai a few times on my own. Ugh – a real nightmare at times, but still manageable.

If my kids were extremely and dangerously disruptive, I would expect to be asked to leave.

In fact, my husband and I pretty much have a zero tolerance policy for upsetting other people. If we’re at a restaurant, for instance, and they won’t settle down (and are disturbing others), one of us will take the misbehaving kid outside until they calm down. If they all misbehave, one of us brings them outside while the other settles the bill.

Children fly on JetBlue all of the time and aren’t asked to leave the plane. The behaviour must have been quite bad to be asked to leave (more than an average tantrum).